US WW2 Waltham Pocket Compass

One of my worker came in our junk shop today holding a brass round thing I thought that was a pocket watch. When he gave it to me I opened it and saw that it was a working compass. The cover has an etched US word so it definitely was a US made pocket compass. Upon closer inspection the main compass has the name of Waltham. I looked it up on the Internet and found out that the pocket compass was issued to the US Military primarily to the US Air Force and its Officers as part of their survival kit. Upon further research I found out that it was issued during World War Two by Waltham Watch & Co. The material that was used for the housing was made of brass and for the crystal protection of the compass was made from glass. It has a diameter of 1.75 inches and it only weighs two ounces.

As you can see in the picture the brass cover has some signs of oxidation and the top ring part is missing. The centre cover were the US marking is placed is a little bit submerged at first I pushed the back and it popped up again to its original state. The lost ring can easily be replaced by a brass ring of the same kind and you can easily remove the oxidized part by polishing it to make it look brand new again. I asked my worker where the ring part was and he told me that he found it in the garbage bin just like that. I said to him that it was good that he did not dismantle it right away to be sold for scrap and he showed it to me first. The Waltham Pocket Compass will be a good piece for anyone who collects antique wartime stuff especially those people who are into collecting WW2 pieces.